Need some guidance here, so I thought coming to my paisans at Italian Gardeners on Facebook would be a good place to go...While pulling my tomato plants today it hit me that I was alone. My knowledge of gardening, weak as it is, came most from my Father who got his knowledge from his Father who was an immigrant to the U.S. from Foggia. My grandfather worked for Carnegie Steel in Farrell, PA as a janitor for the office. Carnegie had provided a home for him at a cost of $2.200. Company homes without a bathroom were $2,000 so Pasquale went for the better model. Companies did that in those days...this was 1925. The company then deducted so much from his pay and he had a decent house where he could walk to work.

Another thing the company did for employees was to provide garden space. Carnegie owned extra land in Wheatland, PA and the company would plow the land--at no cost to workers--and let employees claim part of it to put in their own garden. My grandfather took great advantage of that and every year would plant tomatoes, potatoes, beans and other vegetables that would help to feed his family.

It was in this garden that he taught my Father, who then taught me. So, fast forward to today, about 80 years later. I am stuck on the Teaching Thing. My children are grown and not really interested. My daughter is in El Paso, Texas and my son, still living with us, is working to become a tennis professional. Neither are much interested in gardening.

100 year-old Portland gardener, Ulisse Edera. Photo by Keith Skelton.

But I love it. I enjoy starting the seeds, tilling the ground, fertilizing and watching the plants grow. Because of the abundance God has provided, I also can many jars of tomato, sauce and hot peppers. Again, not because I have to, like my Grandfather had to, but because I want to. But, I am afraid that I am the last of the line. My uncles are gone. My Father is gone.

My wife humors me and lets me do my thing in the garden. It bothers me that it is likely to end here. And, I fear I am not alone. No one at work talks about a garden. No one else in the neighborhood has one. Just me.

It is a shame, I think, that the accumulated knowledge of at least three generations will end. Do any of you have the same concerns? Do you have children or grandchildren who work with you and ask questions and help pull weeds and can tomatoes and wonder why something is growing or not? Let me know...and if you have answers for this situation, I would love to hear them. Thank you so much, my paisans.

Amalfi cat tending his garden

Passing on the tradition

And my Thoughts...

And I totally agree with David, which is why I've asked his permission to post his words here on Grand Voyage Italy. After all, we are #AllAboutItaly here... and we're all about the Truths about our culture. I feel David is correct--too many young people today are detached from their cultural roots and have no idea where their food comes from, especially true with Italian-Americans. When one takes a Voyage around Italy, all you see is gardens--everywhere, in tiny front yards, hanging on walls, on balconies and terraces and in pot gardens surrounding people's front doors. It doesn't matter if they have lemons and pomegranates on their patio or just a pot of basil on their windowsill--it seems that everyone grows something edible.

We should all strive to teach our children the value of home grown, healthy food, like I've done for my own son, Lucas. Here's a photo of him with his tomato harvest at 4 years old...

He's 15 now and looks forward to each February when we go down into the cellar, sort out our seeds and start our heirloom seeds that we save each year from our garden. He now looks forward to the tomatoes we grow as if they are old friends... Eva Purple Ball, Olivette Juane, Giant Belgium, Jersey Devil and more. He also is learning to cook using the vegetables harvested from our garden, and even when we don't grow them ourselves, he now knows how to smack a cantaloupe, listening for the lowest pitched sound (a sign of ripeness), or check a peach's ripeness with his nose, as my Dad taught me.

Gardening is part of the Italian soul. Pass it on, people. Pass it on...

This painting, Portrait of a Young Boy Holding a Drawing by Giovanni Francesco Caroto (1480 – 1555) is perhaps one of the strangest portraits from the Renaissance period. Since carota in Italian means carrot, and the boy in the painting has "carrot-top" colored hair, many believe it's a self portrait of the artist as a boy. Others think it's a portrait of the artist's son. There are some who believe that to truly represent a child's drawing in the portrait, Carota asked a child to paint that part of the picture, which if true, would mean that it has dual authorship--Carota and an unknown child.

This is also the painting from which Dr Harry Angelman derived the now defunct name of Happy Puppet Syndrome for children (now referred to as Angelman’s syndrome). In the painting, the boy’s happy expression and the jerky movement of the puppet of which he holds a picture, reminded Angelman of the behaviors exhibited by three young patients who had the syndrome in his pediatric ward in Warrington, England. Angleman’s syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual and developmental delay, sleep disturbance, seizures, jerky movements (especially hand-flapping), and frequent laughter or smiling. It affects approximately one in 20,000 children.

To add more interest to this odd painting, it was among others stolen from the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona in 2014. Little more than a year later, the paintings were recovered in in the area of Odessa, on an island of the Dniester river not far from the partially recognized state of Transnistria, just a few kilometres away from the border between Ukraine and Moldavia. According to the Ukrainian police commissioner Viktor Nazarenko, the paintings were buried wrapped in some black plastic drop cloths and hidden behind some shrubs. (Watch the discovery in the video below).

The cimaruta is a very old Italian portafortuna (good luck charm) rooted in the lore of the ancient Pagan religions of Italy. It can be worn around the neck or hung above an infant's bed to ward off any evil. Like many of the lasting ancient symbols and beliefs, the cimaruta design eventually took on certain symbols of Catholicism. One example of a Christian addition to the design is the appearance of "the sacred heart" of Jesus. However, ancient Roman charms did include a heart symbol, which may indicate that the heart on the cimaruta isn't an entirely new addition.

The traditional cimaruta is fashioned after the leafy sprig of rue, which is an herb that is highly featured in Italian magic and lore. The branch of the rue is divided into three stems symbolizing the three forms of the goddess Diana. Rue was a sacred herb for Diana.

Various charms appear on the rue design, each having its own meaning. The main symbols are the moon, serpent, and key. These represent the goddess as Hecate (the key), Diana (the moon) and Proserpina (the serpent). There may also be a rose; a hand holding either a wand or a sword; a flaming heart; a fish or dolphin (a nod to Diana); an owl (to flirt with the Devil); a plumed medieval helmet; a vervain blossom (a flower from Italian fairy ore); a cherub; a rooster (watchful guardian); and an eagle (able to see evil coming from far away). One cimaruta, for example, might bear the collective imagery of a key, dagger, blossom and moon. The cimaruta is worn nowadays more by women than men.

Mano in Fica

The clenched fist with a trusting thumb is known as mano in fica or simply, mano figa ("fig-hand"), or far le fiche ("c*nt gesture", pardon the profanity), for the resemblance to female genitalia. The word figa itself is a very vulgar word to describe a vagina in Italy. Such a rude hand gesture was common in past centuries, similar to "giving the finger" or "flipping the bird", but has fallen out of use. Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Canto XXV) mentions the mano in fica. Supposedly, this charm is used to insult the devil and others casting evil spells.

CornettoThe cornetto, shaped like a horn or chili pepper, is still popular in Southern Italy around Naples, Calabria and in the rest of Mezzogiorno (southern Italy). In Calabria and Naples this charm is worn as jewelry, hung on rear view mirrors, hung in shop windows, on key rings, and on t-shirts. It is more effective if it is red (representing an enemy's blood) and topped with a crown (representing wealth). The cornetto is a symbol of virility (obvious with its phallic shape), but it also brings luck, wealth, success and can also used by women. A similar magical horn of plenty was carried by the Roman Goddess Abundantia to represent abundance, and many think the cornetto has its roots in ancient Roman times.

Mano CornoAn alternative to the cornetto, some claim the Mano Corno can ward off the malocchio (evil eye). However, in Italy, the Mano Corno can be seen as offensive... this hand gesture is called cornuto, or a cuckolded man. Give this hand sign to an Italian man and you are basically calling him weak, pathetic and unmanly. This sign--along with sticking up a middle finger--are the most insulting signs you can insult an Italian man with. This charm directly insults the devils and his demons himself.

CoccinellaThe Coccinella, or ladybug (ladybird) charm brings luck in the arena of love and romance. it's a very common charm in Italy, especially with women. The red color has multiple meanings... red represents victory over one's enemies (spilling their blood); red helps ward off malocchio; and red also is the color of passion and romance. Another fact about the ladybug is they eat the bad bugs who would eat a farmer's crops, so of course they came to be thought of as a sign of good luck, helping prevent crop failure.

GobboThe Gobbo is a very odd charm that appears in the form of a hunchback man with one horn leg. He is often depicted as top-hatted tramp clutching a horseshoe in one hand and making a cornuto gesture with the other. You might even find other variations, such as a white clown hunchback wearing a black Venetian mask. He is also sometimes portrayed riding a cornetto, this variation of the charm is called a corno gobbo.

The Gobbo is a powerful charm when it comes to money and gambling. Anyone in need of extra luck for any reason would rub the hump on his back. You can even find hollow cornetti with a little hunchback hanging inside the screw-crown.

The Ferrari 250GT Cabriolet is technically a 1961 model, but it was developed and built at the end of 1959. Because of the timing, it allowed Ferrari to incorporate four-wheel disc brakes and engine lessons learned from the legendary Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa race car. It’s a more plush and powerful version of the 250GT California Spider. Only 200 examples were built, and this particular car underwent a total restoration after it was exported to the United States in the 1970s.

The 1964 Ferrari 250GT/L Berlinetta Lusso was the last model in the famous 250GT line, incorporating as many chassis upgrades and luxury features as Ferrari could stuff under its sensual, Pininfarina-Scaglietti body. There were only 350 built, with this particular car imported new to the United States, where it spent its entire life with an odometer reading of just over 44,000 miles.

This 1931 Bugatti Type 55 is the first Type 55 in existence and was owned by the Duc de la Trémoille of the French nobility. It won the 1947 Rally des Alpes—a four-day, 1035-mile race.

This 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider originally sold in Europe and raced extensively between 1954 and 1956 by its first two owners. This car has resided in the United States almost exclusively since the mid-1960s. Original to this car, its 170-hp 2.0-liter inline-four is more or less a copy of those engines that powered Alberto Ascari to Formula 1 championships for Enzo Ferrari’s team in 1952 and 1953.

When considering a visit to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum tour, perhaps you've had doubts about the long lines, heat, the expense, hours on your feet slugging through the 5 miles of museum corridors, shoulder-to-shoulder with the cruise ship tour groups, trying to soak in all of the Sistine Chapel's majesty within the 10 minutes they allow... well, you may now have a serious option for enjoying the art of the Master in a unique and new way...

Artainment Worldwide Shows, along with the expertise of the Vatican Museums, have produced Giudizio Universale'sMichelangelo and the Secrets of the Sistine Chapel.

The multimedia and live performance show aims to be an important event for art lovers and will be a must-see for the millions of Italian and international visitors who place Rome and the Vatican Museum at the top of their Must See List. Conceived by Marco Balich, the show is the first example of an innovative format that combines the narrative of the origin of a masterpiece with the most sophisticated and technologically advanced instruments of live entertainment.

For this project, Marco Balich has collaborated with world-renowned musician Sting, who composed the original theme music. The other names of the cast are stunning: the voice of Michelangelo will be by Pier Francesco Favino (known for the Disney fantasy “The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian” and the collaboration with the Oscar-winning director Ron Howard’s “Rush” and “Angels and Demons”). Together with the original theme performed and arranged by Sting, there will be new music composed by John Metcalfe, a leading figure in the contemporary pop-rock scene and producer of artists such as Morrisey, Blur and Coldplay.

The show explores more than just the Sistine Chapel, but the history and works of the Master himself--Michelangelo and the 16th century Renaissance. The show is a mix of art history, theatrical performance, both photographic and physical special effects, words, images, dance and music.

The most impressive thing about the production are its 270° immersive projections, together with larger-than-life stage effects and live performances similar to Cirque du Soleil acrobatics. During a 60-minute show, spectators will follow the story of the origin of Michelangelo’s masterpiece, from Giulio II‘s commission of frescoes of the vault to the realization of the Universal Judgment, through a reenactment of the Sistine Chapel as the place for the papal election.

Through the storytelling about Michelangelo, modern special effects will animate the frescos of the Sistine Chapel to end with the wonderful Universal Judgment that will come to life throughout the space around the public. A new chapter of the Italian cultural offering, Giudizio Universale is a long-term project with a typical Italian style. It will run from March 15, 2018, at the Auditorium della Conciliazione in Rome. The audience will be able to choose to attend the show in Italian or in English (starting March 24).

Let's hope that the production draws away some of the crowds that are overburdening the Vatican Museum itself... and that the Vatican helps to publicize the show. It's become obvious the Vatican has oversold both the Museum and St. Peters Basilica with a fear that they are destined to become a tourist destination with as little passion and meaning as a visit to Euro Disney.

From the Mouth of the Bocca: This is a great option for people who normally would never spend an entire day in a hot, stuffy art museum and prefer lighter entertainment.

Giacomo Carmagnola is an Italian graphic designer who creations are classified as Glitch Art, a school of art that utilizes glitches in digital (or other) technologies as primary expressive elements in their creations. He often mixes vintage photographs with digital manipulation and techniques. His work is a mix of the occult, the sinister, emotions and abstractions, and raw psychological thrills. Adobe Photoshop and Processing Pixel sorting scripts are his medium.

No shit! There really is a Shit Museum in Italy... the Museo della Merda.It was in 2015 that Gianantonio Locatelli founded the "museum" in Lombardy along with his associates: Luca Cipelletti, who manages its projects and products, Gaspare Luigi Marcone and Massimo Valsecchi.

The idea came into being in Castelbosco, in the province of Piacenza (just south of Milan) on a farm which makes milk for Grana Padano cheese and includes seven production units. Here every day 3,500 specially selected cows produce around 50,000 litres of milk and 150,000 kilos of poop.

Letame Essciato - Dried Manure fertilizer

The future-thinking Locatelli wanted to turn all this excrement into something useful with his ecological, productive and cultural scheme. Using highly innovative systems, electrical energy started to be produced from the manure. Today the farm produces up to three megawatts per hour! The buildings and offices of the farm are heated exploiting the warmth given off by huge processing tanks called Digestori (digesters) turning the manure into energy. The process also produces fertilizer offered for sale under the name MerdaMe (Shit me).

All these activities have drawn attention from various international institutions concerned with ecology and innovation, leading to widespread recognition and prizes, and making Castelbosco a point of reference.

Locatelli began to gather together friends and artists, leading him to the idea of the Shit Museum. The Museum itself might be called a canvas onto which artists create... the Digesters themselves transformed into a bright colored landmark in the area. The idea for a new museum slowly took shape, emerging from manure to deal with the broader theme of transformation. The museum would be an agent of change which, through educational and research activities, the production of objects of everyday use and the gathering of artifacts and stories concerning excrement in the modern world and throughout history, was to dismantle cultural norms and prejudices.

The first stage of the project was carried out in April 2015 with the inauguration of the exhibition spaces of the Museum, in the rooms on the ground floor of the company premises, located within the medieval castle of Castelbosco. The museum is a blend of aesthetic, scientific, human and animal experiences, both modern day and historic. The concept is that shit is a useful and living material.

The symbol and mascot of the Museum is the dung beetle, considered divine by the Egyptians (and symbol of the Museum itself), to the use of dung in architecture, from ancient Italian civilizations to those in Africa, via historical-literary works such as Pliny’s Naturalis Historia. Right up to the latest scientific research and works of art drawing on the use and reuse of waste and discarded materials, the Museum is a contemporary cabinet of curiosities which finds its main guide in the science and art of transformation.

Museum ActivitiesRight from the start, the Shit Museum was designed to be a production center not only of ideas and exhibitions, but also of objects and projects. The implementation and patenting of the Merdacotta® brand sums up the principle of sustainability. The poo is mixed with clay and gives shape to the first products to bear the Museo della Merda brand: vases, flowerpots, tiles, plates, bowls, a jug and a mug in simple, clean, rustic shapes, harking back to ancient principles.

The ‘primordial products’ of the Museum were presented for the first time during the 2016 Salone del Mobile, in an exhibition which won the promoters Cipelletti and Locatelli first prize in the Milano Design Award. The motivation given was as follows: “for the development of a process of great complexity and innovation, capable of destabilizing common perceptions. The educational itinerary breaks down all the commonplace stereotypes and offers a censorial experience, one which promotes a new vision of the culture of the project.”

With a commanding view of the Amalfi Coastline, the Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer in Ravello is balanced on its perch at a height of 1200 feet above the sea below. Before it was built, the "City of Music" (as Ravello is called) featured several beautiful outdoor venues--but none with more than a hundred seat capacity. Villa Rufolo, Villa Cimbrone, Piazza Duomo and Piazza San Giovanni del Toro all offered concerts, dance performances and plays. But Ravello desired a new, dynamic structure, allowing it to extend the concert series all year round to a greater number of fans and admirers.

The project was assigned to the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer who delivered his plans on September 23rd 2000, after only seventy days of work. From the outset the architect found himself in front of problems related to natural unevenness of the terrain:"... the uneven ground, narrow with a very strong transverse orientation. Hence the initiative to build a model." ... " I did not think an expensive operation involving an unnatural development of the land was necessary, so I took as a starting point the exact inclination of the parterre and the project started to take its present shape".

Niemeyer died at 105 years old in 2011, one year before construction was completed.

The architecture of Ravello has Roman and Medieval roots and is strongly characterized by architectural elements typical of such periods, such as vaulted ceilings, terraces, columns, classical statuary, arches, and formal gardens. One would think that the first obstacle to overcome was just to design a structure that was not in conflict with the architectural identity of Ravello and the Amalfi Coast.

In reality, the Auditorium is an assault against the traditional lines of architecture. It is a cornerstone in aesthetic and cultural modernization of the countryside, jumping out of the surrounding environment with its curved lines and the blinding white color. The shape of the one side of the structure reminds one of the eyes painted on the prows of fishing vessels harking back to the time of the Greeks. Others might think the building looks like a large bird about to fly from its nest to soar the coastline below, or its shape like the wing of an obese jetliner.

A competitor's view: A concert at Villa Rufalo

The Auditorium is accessed by an oblong square, which allows its visitors to enjoy, at the same time, the amazing landscape and view of the sea. From a vantage-point from above the large glass entrance, one can see the mountains' reflection. The main concert hall defies the natural slope of the land... the orchestra stand and the foyer are projecting over the cliff without a visible support.

"It's not the perfect angle that attracts me, and not even the straight, hard, inflexible man-made one. What really attracts me is the free and sensual curve. The curve that represents the meeting of the mountains of my homeland, the figure of a beautiful woman, the clouds of the sky and the waves of the sea. The same curves which create the Universe. The curved Universe of Einstein. "(Oscar Niemeyer)

Really? This roof is only 5 years old

There has been--and still is--controversy about the design and placement of the Auditorium. For one thing, the architecture sticks out of the landscape and surrounding architecture like a sort, bright white thumb. Some complain that Neimeyer didn't design the structure to take full advantage of the amazing panoramic views of the coastline below, leaving only the large windows the the left of the audience, a rather low and narrow "eye" window situated right behind the performers, and a round window too high for anyone to see much of a view.

The room--acoustically speaking--is a very difficult one, in terms of producing the best sound for the audience's pleasure. Some experts claim it is flawed, while audiences suggest the opposite. First of all, it's not symmetrical... the floor on the right side extends further from the audience than the left side. The sound is no distributes equally to all seats (the center seats are louder than the ones along the side).

Another issue with its design is parking. Although it contains a lower level parking garage, there are only 107 parking spaces, some argue not enough for the 400 seat auditorium. There are also problems with the daily running of the venue... cafes being closed for no reason, people still entering the auditorium 20 minutes after a concert has started, etc. There are also some signs on the smooth, curved surface of the roof having many patches in it... surprising for such a young structure. One wonders if the building will last for a millennia as others have along the Amalfi Coast.

And if you visit the Auditorium during the months when there are no concerts scheduled, you can still see a feature film there. Bigfoot Junior is showing this week.

--Jerry Finzi

Is this what Neimeyer had in mind when he first envisioned his masterpiece?